"For the High and Exalted One who lives forever, whose name is Holy says this: 'I live in a high and holy place, and with the oppressed and lowly of spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and revive the heart of the oppressed." - Isaiah57:15

yareelohim wrote:Stoeger, benelli, beretta, are Italian guns (though they may be manufactured in turkey).

These Italian guns are known for their "skinny" barrels. Smaller bore diameter than a standard 12ga.

With the skinny barrel guns, they seem to perform best with wads that have thin plastic walls (most Italian made wads). Kent uses thin wads in their faststeel which may be why they produce good patterns in these gun (generally speaking).

However, I have shot many Win Xperts and they have performed very well for me in all my guns. If you cut them open you will notice they have missed shaped pellets of all different sizes. They still seems to work very well for me and a lot of other people as well.

If you can pattern, pattern! Know the distance you take waterfowl at most and chose the appropriate size choke for that distance and pattern at that distance.

I take most waterfowl between 25-35 yards and find my LM choke works best for that range and a little beyond according to my patterns and field results.

Really practice shooting birds too! Remember to swing through or keep a lead and follow through. I generally point at the bill of the duck or just in front and slap my trigger as I follow that lead. I have literally taken the heads off ducks! Learn to lead...not too far in front...go for the tip of the bill or just in front.

Your statements regarding thin wads and skinny barrels in exactly opposite in the 9 Benellis I have patterned. The Benelli's I have shot all patterned 10-25% better with Federal Speed Shock shells which have thick stiff wads.

The federal speed Shok pattern well in my benelli and beretta too, just like the Win HV which pattern best in my guns.

The thin wall wads on a whole still seem to pattern better in skinny barrels than do thick wads like Multi-Metal.

I first learned of this fact through several reloading manuals which stated that.

Of course there are exceptions like Fed speed Shok and win HV. However, I think it's more the uniformity of the payload + speed in these loads which produce nice patterns.

"For the High and Exalted One who lives forever, whose name is Holy says this: 'I live in a high and holy place, and with the oppressed and lowly of spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and revive the heart of the oppressed." - Isaiah57:15

Hey guys,I have one question. Only 1 choke came with the gun(XFT) so the gun store owner threw in two Benelli Chokes one Extra Improved Cylinder and one Improved modified. I was reading on the back of the packages the chokes came in and it says not to use steel shot in anything tighter modified. Would that choke get destroyed or would it ruin my barrel when I use my duck loads? Cheers,Eddie

Most manufactures, if not all, say don't use steel in a factory full flush choke.

However, there are extended aftermarket chokes which say full is fine with steel.

Personally, I use a light mod 90% of the time and use an Improved mod for goose only hunts.

"For the High and Exalted One who lives forever, whose name is Holy says this: 'I live in a high and holy place, and with the oppressed and lowly of spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and revive the heart of the oppressed." - Isaiah57:15

I am going to take a guess and say that extended chokes stick out of the barrel and flush chokes don't stick out of the barrel and if I am correct in saying that they are both extended chokes.Cheers,Eddie

Hey guys,I patterned the gun. The choke's didn't blow up and neither did my barrel. The patterns were a litlle high and a little to the left. I was told it could be me, it could be the gun, it could be the choke or it could be the shells. The choke patterns were awesome though.Cheers,Eddie

Hey guys,I brought my 3500 Skeet shooting yesterday. Shot 125 rounds through it. When we started it was doing good, every once in a while it wouldn't feed and that was because I didn't put the shell far enough into the magazine. After we shot the second round the stock was really wobbly up and down and side to side. I took off the butt pad and tightened the recoil reducer. That worked for the third round and then the stock got really loose again. This time I took off the butt pad and my uncle took of the recoil reducer and the washer so he could tighten the nut. After that we put everything back the way it was before. After that I shot another round and there was one missfeed during my last set of doubles during that round. When I shot my last round it turned into a single shot gun for the entire round. My uncle and my cousin both have Stoegers and they had the same problem when they first took their guns to the skeet range. My uncle said I shouldn't worry about this and that it was because the gun was relatively new and we were shooting light loads. When I was reading about the 3500 many people had this happen to them when their guns were new so I am not worried about it right now but if this happens when duck Hunting I am not going to be happy. If this has happened to anyone else what did you do to fix the problem?Cheers,Eddie

If its new out the box you usually have a break in period to get everything working well especially light loads.

If your duck hunting you will be shooting heavy loads so no worries there.

Read the manufacture recommendation on break in periods.

"For the High and Exalted One who lives forever, whose name is Holy says this: 'I live in a high and holy place, and with the oppressed and lowly of spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and revive the heart of the oppressed." - Isaiah57:15